There seems to be no end in sight to cease- fire in the exchange of hot words between Oba Sikiru Adetona, the Awujale of Ijebu land and Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, the Alake of Egba land, on ranking among the traditional rulers in Yoruba land. AGBOOLA BAYO reports that their recent cross fire is stoking bitter rivalry over supremacy among the monarchs.
The Awujale has criticized the Alake for claiming he is a top monarch. The traditional ruler said there was no official ranking of Yoruba Obas Oba Sikiru Adetona, the Awujale of Ijebuland has lashed out at Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, the Alake of Egbaland for categorising himself as a top monarch in Yorubaland.
It will be recalled that the Alake caused a stir a month ago when he received Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife in his palace and said The Ooni occupied the first position in the ranking of kings in Yorubaland. He listed the Alaafin of Oyo, the Oba of Benin, himself and Awujale as second, third, fourth and fifth respectively.
Blueprint recalls that the ugly affair began at a fundraiser for a professorial chair instituted in his honour by the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, in Lagos on March 10, the Awujale said the Alake was a junior monarch in Yorubaland and should not stake a claim to any position. “The Alake, while receiving the Ooni in his palace, said Yoruba Obas (the ‘Big Five’ so to say) had been categorised with the Ooni in the first position followed by the Alaafin, the Oba of Benin, with the Alake coming fourth and the Awujale occupying the fifth spot in that order.
He also went further to quote wrongly from a 1903 Gazette to support all the fallacies in his statement.”
Expectedly other top monarchs in Yoruba land have been dragged into the discussion. The Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu recently said he contacted the Alake on the comment but he denied it. “In a recent discussion between the Alake and me, we also touched on the same issue. And the Oba of Lagos said that he too had asked Alake the same question, which he had again denied vehemently. “Regrettably, however, when the said statement few days later was continuously credited to the Alake on the pages of newspapers, I expected him to deny it or issue a rebuttal, but he did not do so. “Therefore, I consider it necessary to debunk the falsehood and misrepresentation of facts from the Ake palace so as to put the records straight.”
“The first question to Alake is: who categorised the Yoruba Obas and when? I challenge him to produce the document of the said categorisation. It is a known fact that Alake was a junior traditional ruler under the Alaafin at Orile Egba before he fled to Ibadan for refuge as a result of the war then ravaging the Yorubaland. “Following the defeat of Owu by the Ijebu Army in 1826, the Owus became refugees all over Yorubaland. Some of the Ijebu troops that fought the war proceeded to Ibadan, where they met the Alake and sacked him; consequently forcing him to seek refuge at Ake in Abeokuta in 1830, where, of course, he met the Osile, Olowu and Agura already settled at Oke-Ona, Owu and Gbagura sections of Abeokuta township respectively.
“Even then, the Olubara of Oyo origin had always argued that all the aforementioned four rulers met him in Abeokuta and therefore claimed to be their landlord. “To even refer to the Alake as ‘the Alake of Abeokuta’, not to talk of Egbaland, is a misnomer, as his control since his arrival at Ake in 1830 and till today is restricted to the Ake section of Abeokuta.
The official Government Gazette testifies to this fact. “In short, the Alake, from history and all available records, is a very junior traditional ruler in Yorubaland. His peers in Ijebuland are the Dagburewe of Idowa; Ajalorun of Ijebu-Ife; Akija of Ikija-Ijebu; Olowu of Owu-Ijebu; Oloko of Ijebu-Imushin; Orimolusi of Ijebu-Igbo and Ebumawe of Ago Iwoye.”
Meanwhile, the palace of the Oba of Benin also reacted to the controversy over the supremacy of Obas in the southwest stating that it was untrue that the Benin king was third in the ranking of kings. The rivalry between prominent traditional rulers in Yorubaland in recent times seems to have become more or less a recurring problem with the ongoing verbal war between the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo and the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona few weeks after similar supremacy battle between the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi and the Owa Obokun of Ijesaland, Oba Gabriel Adekunle Aromolaran was resolved.
This latest supremacy battle reared its head last month when the Alake of Egbaland was receiving the Ooni of Ife to his Ake palace in Abeokuta during which he insisted that Ooni’s supremacy cannot be challenged by any Oba in Yorubaland.
Oba Gbadebo stressed further that going by the 1937 grading of traditional rulers in Yorubaland, the Awujale of Ijebu was ranked the least.
However,the Awujale of Ijebu while speaking at a fund raising for a professorial chair instituted in his honour by the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, in Lagos last Thursday fired back at the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Gbadebo by describing the Alake as a “junior king in Yorubaland,” saying,it was wrong for the Alake to have categorised himself among the five top monarchs in Yorubaland.
Oba Adetona said the Alake was only trying to distort Yoruba history with his clam and that the Alake denied saying such a thing when he called him on phone about the 1937 ranking and that the Alake denied same when the Oba of Lagos also called him on phone.
Oba Adetona pointed out that “Alake was a junior chief in Egba forest under Alaafin from where he fled to Ibadan and that he (Alake) later fled to Abeokuta where he met the Osile, the Olowu, the Agura and Olubara, all of whom had previously settled in Abekuta before him and that the Alake only based his ranking on newspapers report .
However on Monday this week,the Alake and Paramount Ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo Alake rose in defence of his February position on the ranking of Obas in Yorubaland saying, he stands by his rankings of monarchs in Yorubaland and that his rankings were based on a government gazette, not a newspaper publication, as the Awujale Oba Sikiru Adetona had claimed.
Speaking through Egba palace chiefs,the Alake accused Oba Adetona of churning out “historical falsehood in the presence of knowledgeable Nigerians.”
Speaking through the Ba’aroyin of Egbaland and the media aide to the Alake, Chief Lai Labode, Oba Gbadebo declared that he relied on documentary evidence before making his rankings, the Government Gazette of the Colony of Lagos dated February 20, 1903, page 100, paragraph 16 on the ranking of Yoruba traditional rulers.
.According to the Alake, the gazette “is a subsidiary legislation which has force of law and therefore a public document available for verification.”
The spokesperson for the Alake faulted the claim by the Awujale hat Alake was a junior chief in Egba forest under Alaafin from where he fled to Ibadan, saying, “Alake was never sacked by the Ijebu army, and that the claim that he (Alake) later fled to Abeokuta where he met the Osile, the Olowu, the Agura and Olubara, all of whom had previously settled in Abekuta before him, was not true.
According to the Egba chiefs, 20 Alakes had reigned in the Egba forest prior to the founding of Abeokuta in 1830, adding that there was no Alake that fled to or took refuge in Ibadan.
“The Egbas arrived and settled in Abeokuta mainly in 1830. The first Alake in Abeokuta was installed in 1854, followed by the Olowu in 1855, the Agura in 1870 and the Osile in 1897.”
To buttress the Yoruba Obas ranking on the Alake’s ranking above Awujale, the chiefs quoted the Lord Lugard’s grading and salaries of obas in the Southern Province which revealed that the two first class monarchs were on different salary scales, with the Alake receiving £2, 250 and the Awujale receiving £1, 700 as contained on page 4, paragraph 4, Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Federal Ministry of Information National Archives, Files Nos. 33044, CSO 26, letter SP 11828120, Secretary’s Office, Southern Province, Enugu. 31st January, 1938.
The fresh rivalry between the Alake and Awujale if not urgently resolved could scatter the on going peace move for the unity of Yorubaland by Ooni Ogunwusi and other prominent sons and daughters of Oduduwa in repositioning the entire race for the challenges ahead .
